TEASER: The Romance of the Automobile

The War on Cars

The War on Cars, LLC

Cars, Society & Culture, Culture, Bicycling, Politics, Urbanism, Walking, Transportation, Cities, Transit, News Commentary, News

4.9 • 937 Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2025

⏱️ 4 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This is a preview of a Patreon-exclusive bonus episode. For complete access to this and all of our bonus content, plus ad-free versions of regular episodes, merch discounts, pre-sale tickets to live shows, and more, become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars.

You’ve probably heard us talking about how we have written a book that will be coming out this fall. We are super excited to share more about that very soon. We’ve spent a lot of the last year in the research and writing process. And what became apparent very soon was that there were a lot of things that we weren’t going to be able to fit into the book, no matter how hard we tried.

So we put together a little bonus episode for you on one of the fascinating things we found that just didn’t make the final draft. It’s a book called The Romance of the Automobile Industry: Being the Story of Its Development—Its Contribution to Health and Prosperity—Its Influence on Eugenics—Its Effect on Personal Efficiency—and Its Service and Mission to Humanity as the Latest and Greatest Phase of Transportation.

Published in 1916, it’s essentially a 460-page ad, lavishly illustrated with pictures of bewhiskered white men and their inventions. And even after all the time we’ve spent thinking about cars, this book still had some surprises. (And yes, you read that right…he talks about eugenics. We’ll explain.)

Subscribe on Patreon for access to the whole bonus episode!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Sarah Goodyear, co-host of the War on Cars.
0:15.7	What you're about to hear is a preview of a special bonus episode of the podcast about a weird old book from 1916
0:24.1	called The Romance of the Automobile Industry. If you'd like to listen to the whole thing,
0:31.9	you can get access to this and all our other bonus episodes by going to patreon.com slash the war on cars pod and clicking
0:41.0	support us. We're an independent podcast and we really depend on your support. For as little as
0:49.0	$3 a month, you'll also get ad-free versions of all of our episodes, early access to tickets for live shows,
0:56.5	merch discounts, stickers, a handwritten note of thanks, and the knowledge that you are helping
1:02.3	to build this community. On behalf of my co-host, Doug Gordon, thank you so much for listening
1:09.4	to The War on Cars.
1:19.2	You've probably heard us talking about how we've written a book that will be coming out this fall from Theses, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
1:26.4	We are super excited to share more about that very soon. For now, I want to give you a sneak preview.
1:29.7	Or really, I want to invite you to share something that ended up on the cutting room floor. We've spent a lot of the last year in the research
1:36.8	and writing process. And what became apparent very soon was that there were a lot of things that
1:42.7	we weren't going to be able to fit into the
1:44.4	book no matter how hard we tried to squeeze them in. So I'm going to tell you about one thing I
1:49.5	found that fascinated me that didn't make the cut. I was lucky enough to do a lot of my research
1:55.7	at the New York Public Library in the main branch on 42nd Street, where they have a program for New York residents who are
2:02.5	writing books. You can apply for space in one of the study rooms there, and you can request any
2:08.1	book you want, and they will bring it to you, and you can keep it on a shelf there. It's kind of magical,
2:13.7	to be honest, and I will be eternally grateful for the resources I was able to access
2:18.4	at this incredible public institution. One of the first books I requested when I settled in at the
2:25.2	library is one I hadn't heard of before. It's called The Romance of the Automobile Industry,
	...

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